But before we get to my dishonest tactics of coercion, I must explain the need for Winter to eat raw fish. You see, Whole Foods made me realize I’m a bad mother when I overhead two school-aged kids turning down fresh-made pizza for a round at the sushi bar. I was floored. I’d never heard children ask for raw fish. Hell, I never even tried sushi until I was in my late 20s. I felt like an abomination to motherhood, because I had denied my child the experience of trying scary new foods.
Before concocting an atrocious lie, I needed to find out what Winter knew about sushi. “Winter, do you know what sushi is?”
“A type of food?” She questioned, then thought harder. “Oh, it’s that little green thing with the veggies inside that I tried and don’t like.”
She was on to me. I couldn’t tell her sushi is candy — she’d never buy it. “You’re kind of right, but what you tried was a roll with rice and vegetables. There was no sushi inside. Sushi is exotic, fancy fish,” I claimed dramatically with extra stress on the “exotic” and “fancy.”
“Well, I’d rather have exotic, fancy pizza,” she declared.
Obviously, a bribe was now necessary. “We’re having sushi for dinner. If you finish your plate you can have an ice cream sandwich.” I opened the pre-packaged combo-mix from Whole Foods’ sushi section and plated her half.
Winter nodded and reached for a tuna sushi roll. She wanted no part of the wasabi and soy sauce, and I could tell before the roll touched her stubborn lips that even if she loved it she wouldn’t admit it. The true kid test would be if she ate more than one.
And to my surprise, she ate all her rolls and a couple Nigiri (thin slices of raw fish placed over mounded rice)! Of course, she wouldn’t admit to liking them, but she finished her plate!
I was feeling triumphant until I asked her if she would want to eat at an exotic, fancy sushi restaurant — which is my goal and reason for this little prep session. She answered, “I’d only eat four pieces of sushi, and then I’d have chicken noodle soup and French fries with ketchup.”
Since her snarky comment put a damper on my success it was time to reveal the truth about sushi. “You know sushi is actually raw fish,” I stated matter-of-factly with just a trace of spite.
She breathed in heavy and frantic, “Was it alive or dead?”
“Dead.”
“Oh, okay,” she looked relieved. “Can I have that ice cream sandwich now?” she sung, trotting off to the freezer.